Steak Calories by Cut: Sirloin, Flank, Strip, Ribeye & Filet

Steak calories come down to one thing above all else: the cut. Most grilled steak lands between 200 and 290 calories per 100 g cooked, and that spread is wide enough to change a whole dinner. A lean sirloin and a marbled ribeye can look like the same meal on the plate, but the ribeye carries roughly 45 percent more calories for the same cooked weight.

Here is the quick answer. A sirloin steak runs about 200 calories per 100 g cooked. Flank steak runs about 230, filet mignon about 220, New York strip about 250, and ribeye about 290. Every number in this article is on a cooked basis, using typical USDA-based values, because that is how steak actually reaches your plate.

One more thing to keep straight before the numbers: steak shrinks as it cooks. An 8 oz raw steak cooks down to about 6 oz, or 170 g, of cooked meat. That is why the table below gives you both figures, per 100 g cooked and per typical steak, so you can use whichever matches how you measure at home.

Steak Calories by Cut

The table below is the whole story in one place. All values are typical USDA-based figures for cooked steak. The per-steak column assumes an 8 oz raw steak that cooks down to about 6 oz (170 g) cooked, which is the usual restaurant and butcher-counter portion.

Cut	Per 100 g cooked	Per typical steak (about 6 oz cooked)
Sirloin (lean)	200 kcal	About 340 kcal
Flank steak	230 kcal	About 390 kcal
Filet mignon (beef tenderloin)	220 kcal	About 375 kcal
New York strip	250 kcal	About 425 kcal
Ribeye	290 kcal	About 495 kcal

Check the math yourself: multiply the per-100 g figure by 1.7 for a 170 g cooked steak, and you land on the per-steak column. Sirloin at 200 per 100 g becomes 340; ribeye at 290 becomes 493, rounded to about 495. The gap between the leanest and richest cut in the table is about 155 calories for the same cooked weight, which is a side dish worth of difference.

Flank vs Strip

Flank and strip are the two cuts readers ask about most, and they sit close together in the table: flank at 230 calories per 100 g cooked, strip at 250. That 20-calorie gap per 100 g becomes about 35 calories across a typical 6 oz cooked steak, 390 versus 425. It is real, but it is not the reason to pick one over the other.

Flank is a flat, hard-working muscle from the belly of the animal. It is lean, long-grained, and famously tough if you treat it wrong. Cook it fast and hot, rest it, and slice it thinly against the grain, and it turns tender; slice it with the grain and you will chew every one of those long fibers. It is the classic fajita and stir-fry steak for exactly this reason: cut across the grain, it eats far more tender than its price suggests.

Strip, the New York strip, is a loin cut with a band of fat along one edge and light marbling through the meat. That fat cap is doing two jobs: it bastes the steak as it cooks, and it carries flavor. Trim the fat cap off before eating and you close most of the calorie gap with flank, because much of the strip’s extra fat sits in that visible edge rather than inside the muscle. Eat the cap, and you pay the full 250 per 100 g. Either way, strip is the more forgiving steak to cook: it stays juicy even if you overshoot medium-rare by a little, where flank punishes overcooking fast.

So the honest summary is this: flank is the leaner cut on paper, strip is the easier steak on the grill, and trimming the strip’s fat cap makes the choice nearly a tie. Pick flank when you want the leanest steakhouse-style cut and you are happy to slice it properly. Pick strip when you want a classic steak-night experience with a little more richness built in.

Why Fat Decides the Calories

Here is the part most steak guides skip, and it explains the entire table. The protein in steak barely changes from cut to cut. Every cut in this article carries about 26 to 30 g of protein per 100 g cooked. Protein is protein, wherever it sits on the animal, and it contributes 4 calories per gram no matter which steak you buy.

Fat is the swing factor. A lean sirloin carries about 10 g of fat per 100 g cooked. A ribeye carries about 22 g. That 12 g difference, at 9 calories per gram of fat, is about 108 calories, which accounts for nearly the whole gap between sirloin at 200 and ribeye at 290 per 100 g. The calories change because the fat changes, not because the protein changes.

Marbling is simply the visible name for that fat. It is the white flecks of intramuscular fat threaded through the red muscle, and it melts as the steak cooks, basting the meat from the inside. That is why a ribeye tastes richer and stays juicier than a sirloin cooked the same way: the fat is already inside the bite. It is also why grading systems reward marbling so heavily. A heavily marbled steak is a more luxurious eating experience and a more calorie-dense one, and those two facts are the same fact.

The Leanest Choices

If you are choosing steak with a calorie budget in mind, the order is simple. Sirloin is the leanest cut in the table at about 200 calories per 100 g cooked, and flank is next at about 230. Filet mignon sits in the middle at about 220 per 100 g, which surprises people who assume the most expensive cut must be the richest. Filet is a tender, mild muscle with very little fat, so it eats lean even though it eats tender.

That makes filet the quiet compromise cut: all the tenderness of a special-occasion steak without the ribeye’s calorie load. The trade-off is flavor. Filet’s leanness is why it is so often wrapped in bacon or served with a sauce, and either of those additions can erase the savings. A plain filet with mushrooms or a pepper sauce you can account for beats a bacon-wrapped one if calories are the point.

For everyday beef, the comparison that matters is with ground beef, which most people cook far more often than steak. A lean ground beef patty and a sirloin steak are close cousins nutritionally, and the same rule applies to both: the fat percentage decides the calories. See how the numbers play out across grinds in our ground beef calories guide, where 90/10 and 95/5 beef land in the same lean territory as sirloin.

Steak on a Weight-Loss Budget

Steak fits a weight-loss plan just fine, as long as the portion and the cut are honest. A 6 oz cooked sirloin at about 340 calories is a normal dinner centerpiece, especially next to vegetables and a modest portion of potatoes or rice. It brings roughly 45 to 50 g of protein with it, which is exactly what keeps a calorie-controlled dinner satisfying for hours rather than minutes.

Ribeye nights cost about 150 more for the same cooked weight, about 495 instead of 340, before any sauce or butter. That is not a reason to ban ribeye. It is a reason to plan for it: a ribeye night pairs naturally with a lighter lunch or a salad-first dinner, while a sirloin night leaves room for a heartier side. The cut you choose is a budgeting decision, not a moral one.

Three habits keep steak nights honest without any sacrifice worth naming. First, weigh the steak raw if you are tracking closely, and remember it loses about a quarter of its weight cooking, so 8 oz raw becomes about 6 oz cooked. Second, trim visible fat caps rather than eating them; that alone can save a meaningful chunk on a strip or ribeye. Third, watch the additions more than the steak: a tablespoon of butter melted over the top adds about 100 calories, and creamy sauces add more than the difference between sirloin and strip. If you want to see where a steak dinner fits in your day, run your numbers through the maintenance calories calculator and build the meal around the result.

Raw vs Cooked: Why Labels Look Different

The practical rule is to pick one basis and stay consistent. If you weigh your steak raw, use the label. If you weigh it cooked, use the cooked figures in this article: sirloin 200, filet 220, flank 230, strip 250, and ribeye 290 per 100 g. Mixing the two, weighing cooked meat against a raw label, is how a 340-calorie sirloin quietly gets logged as 450 or as 250, depending on the direction of the mistake.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pick the cut for the night you are actually having. Sirloin and flank for the everyday budget, filet for the lean special occasion, ribeye when you plan for the richness. The steak itself is honest food; the numbers just ask you to count the cut, not only the calories on the label.